PETROL pump prices could go up this evening if the government feels it has secured enough support for its compromise fuel prices package.
A relevant amendment could be tabled before the House of Representatives plenum when it convenes at 4 pm today. The bill would be voted on in the same session to avoid profiteering, though there is no guarantee it would pass.
If tabled and approved, pump price rises would be less than the 10 per cent what the government tried unsuccessfully to push through parliament earlier this year.
The government has been trying all year to get parliamentary parties to agree to pump price hikes to offset the effects of expensive crude and a weak Cyprus pound.
With oil importing companies threatening not to renew fast-disappearing fuel stocks unless their income is supplemented in some way, the government has little time to waste.
The government was yesterday waiting to hear the final positions of the parliamentary parties on a new fuel prices proposal put to them by President Clerides earlier this month. The government thrashed out the compromise proposal after parliamentary parties twice refused to approve petrol pump rises.
Details of Clerides’ package have not been announced, but reports suggest it provides for a smaller pump price rise than was first proposed by the government. At the same time, the President apparently also wants the way fuel prices are set to be changed so that pump prices reflect fluctuations in the price of crude. The compromise package would also commit the government to liberalising the fuel market in the near future. The last proposal aims at appeasing criticism of the current system, which guarantees oil importers a certain profit margin.
Parties have so far kept their cards close to their chests on Clerides’ proposal. Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis was, according to reports, yesterday doing the rounds of parliamentary parties in a further bid to convince them of the merits of Clerides’ proposals.
The government is desperate to get out of a real tight spot on fuel.
With parties refusing to approve unpopular petrol pump price hikes, the government has had no option but to subsidise oil imports. But this practice has cost already depleted state coffers some £14 million since the turn of the year and would cost an estimated £50 million by the end of the year if continued.
Oil importers say their income has been down by, on average, £5 million a month since January and that they cannot afford to continue importing at a loss.
International crude oil prices are set to remain sky high in months to come and the Cyprus pound shows no immediate signs of recovery.
